ABSTRACT
This research considers the possibilities of creating aesthetics in painting using doodle. The main thrust is to establish a new mode of artistic expression in painting by recreating the doodles made by a select number of people, while the objectives include to, identify images in doodles, explore line and texture as design elements inherent in doodles, explore the various techniques that could be employed to create visual space for doodles in the paintings, create paintings adopting doodle images in their original form, create painting compositions combining different doodle images, and create paintings, drawing inspiration from doodles. Doodling is a mode of expression that is made on a surface; it is an exercise that is regarded as aimless and undecipherable and therefore, its products eventually are discarded and end up in the dustbin. The researcher‟s intention was to elevate the status of doodles from objects of waste, to adorable and desirable elements of aesthetics. The research was inspired by the psychoanalysis theories of Sigmund Freud relating to unconscious and sub conscious states of the human mind. The researcher discovered that doodling, dream and fantasy act as connecting links between the conscious and the unconscious and also that Surrealism as an art movement was inspired by dream and fantasy which are both offshoots of the unconscious, and also that doodling is spontaneous and is generated from the realm of sub consciousness. He therefore considered Surrealism and Spontaneous paradigms as major theoretical ideas suitable to conceptualize the visual thoughts for this research. Literature was reviewed to ascertain the level of people‟s use of doodle to create artworks. Attempts were also made to establish the fact that artists in Nigeria have variously explored and adapted line, which is a major attribute of doodle in creating works of art, especially of ulism and onaism which are two of the prominent artistic movements among Nigerian artists, but none have explored doodle as a
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directional focus. The research method adopted was action research in practice-based methodology, which is a way of knowledge that brings ideas, theories and action together with the aim of creating practical knowing. The studio experiments were divided into two parts, exploration and development of form. The exploration of form considered preliminary studies which formed the basis for the development of form. The different stages of studio practice also systematically provided answers to the various research questions raised to actualize the research aim and objectives. At the conclusion of the research, it was discovered that doodle images abound everywhere especially in solitary and public places like toilets, library tables and chairs, office walls and commuter buses. Literature reviewed revealed that many artists adapted other forms of images and subject matter to explore their interest for doodling which negated the actual meaning and characteristics of doodle. Paintings created during the exploration of various techniques during preliminary study III, could on their own stand for finished artworks; an example is Celestial Imagery. The research, “Creating Aesthetics in Painting using Doodles” has contributed to knowledge through establishing the possibilities of a shift of artistic thematic representation from conscious to subconscious attributes; advancing visual means of transforming doodles into a creative visual expression in Nigerian painting; opening up a visual dialogue for artists, the creative possibilities beyond man‟s state of consciousness.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover Page………………………………………………………….…………………………i Title Page ……………………………….…………………………………………..……….ii Declaration ……………….……..……………………………..……………….……..…….iii Certification ……………………………………………………………………….……….iv Dedication …………………………………………………………….………….…………..v Acknowledgements…………………………………………….………………….…………vi Abstract …………………………………………..…………….………………..…………vii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………….……ix List of Figures …………………………………………………..…………….………..….xiii List of Plates…………………………………………………………..……………..……xvi CHAPTER ONE…………………………………………………………….…….……….1 1.0 Introduction to the Study ………………………………………………….…….….1
1.1 Background of the study.…………………………………………………………….2
1.2 Statement of the Problem…………………………………………….…….………..5
1.3 Aim of the study……………………………………………………….….……….5
1.4 Objectives of the study……………………………………………………….…….5
1.5 Research Questions..……………………………………………..……………….…6
1.6 Justification …………………………………………………………………….…..6
1.7 Significance …………………………………………………………………….…..7
1.8 Scope of the Study………………………………………………………….….……8
1.9 Conceptual framework……………………………………………………………….8
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CHAPTER TWO 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………………………………………..11 2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………..11 2.2 Artists and Paintings inspired by Dream or Subconscious Associations…….………12 2.2.1 Salvador Dali (1904-1989)………………………………….………………………13 2.2.2 Paul Klee (1879-1940) ……………………………………….…………….…………16 2.2.3 Andre Masson (1896-1987)………………………………….…………………..…21 2.2.4 Joan Miro (1893-1983)……….……………………………………..…………24 2.2.5 Max Ernst (1891-1976)………….…………..……..………………..……….……..26 2.2.6 Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)….……………………………………………………28 2.3. Artists whose works echo Spontaneous Attributes……………………….……30 2.3.1 Edwin Parker Twombly Jr. (1928-2011): …………..…………………..………….30 2.3.2 Leonard Charles Huia Lye (1901-1980)………………..…………………………..33 2.3.3 Carl Baratta (b. unknown)………………………………….……………………….35 2.3.4 Faith Georgia (b. unknown)………..……………………….………………………37 2.3.5 Gani Odutokun (1946-1995) ………………………………………………………..39 2.3.6 Jerry Buhari (b.1959)…….….……………………………………………………..42 3.3.7 Sandra Strait (b. unknown)…………………………………………….…………..46 2.3.8 Jim Bradshaw (b. unknown)………………..…………………………….…………47 2.3.9 Sherrie Thai (b. unknown)….………..………………………………………….…50 2.3.10 Tanya McClelland (b. unknown)…..….…..………….…..…………………….……51 2.3.11 Annalea Bennett (b. unknown)………………………………………………….….52
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2.4 Linear Appearance in Doodle with Nigerian Artists (Ulism and Onaism)..…..55 2.4.1 Uche Okeke (b. 1933)………………………………….………………..…………….56 2.4.2 Tayo Adenaike (b. 1954)……………….…………………………..………………..59 2.4.3 Olakunle Filani (b. 1957)………………………………………………..………….61 2.5 Waste to Wealth Syndrome.………………….………………………….……….63 2.5.1 Jacob Jari (b. 1960)………………………………………………………..…….…….63 2.5.2 Kolade Osinowo (b. 1948)…………………………………………….…………………65 2.6 Review of Concepts of Aesthetics…..……………………………………………..68 2.6.1 Traditional Theories of Aesthetics……………………………………..….……….68 2.6.2 Modern Aesthetics…………………………………….………………..….………70 2.7 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….………71 CHAPTER THREE 3.0 METHODOLOGY ………………………………………..………………..…….72 3.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………..……72 3.2 Procedures in Studio Research……………….…..………………………….…..…73 3.3 Exploration and Development of Forms ………………..…….…………………..74 3.4 Methods of Data Collection…………………………………..…………………….75 3.5 Exploration of Form ………..…………………………………………..….…….84 3.5.1 Preliminary Studies I……………………………………………………………….84 3.5.2 Preliminary Studies II……………………………………………………..….…….87 3.5.3 Preliminary Studies III…………………………………………..………………….91 3.5.4 Preliminary Studies IV………………………….………..…..…..…….….….….105
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3.6 Development of Form……………………………………………………….…..114 3.6.1 Reformation Stage I………………………………………………….……… ……114 3.6.2 Reformation Stage II…………………………………..…..….……….…….…….119 CHAPTER FOUR 4.0 DISCUSSION………………..………………………………….…………….…126 4.1 Introduction …………………………………………..……………………….…126 4.2 Discussion of Selected Works…………………..…………………………..……129 CHAPTER FIVE 5.0 CATALOGUE…………………………………………………………….….….151 5.1 Artist Curatorial Statement………………………………………………..……151 5.2 Portfolio…………………………………………………………………….….…153 CHAPTER SIX SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ……………………………………………….…..166 6.0 Summary and Conclusion….…..………………………..……………….…….166 6.1 Summary…………………………………………………………………….……175 6.2 Findings………………………………………………………………….….….…..175 6.3 Conclusion…………………………………………….….…………….………….176 6.4 Contribution to Knowledge……………………………..………………….….….177 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………..……..178 INTERNET SOURCES……………………………………………………………..……183
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION “The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises”. – Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) Freud sees consciousness, sub consciousness and unconsciousness as a “Tripartite System”. While he employed a three dimensional analogy to describe this system, he sees unconsciousness as a large entrance hall where different mental impulses fly around independently, leading into a second narrower room in which consciousness resides. At the entrance in between the two rooms, however, resides a “watchman” who acts like a “censor” checking the different impulses to admit anyone that he pleases to. This entrance where the watchman stands, Freud refers to as the level of sub-consciousness. He says “it is perhaps the most important site of mediation within the entire system, as it is at the preconscious level that impulses are either censored and sent back to the unconscious repressed, or admitted to pass on to consciousness” (Pomerantz 2007).
Consciousness and sub-consciousness are mental experiences of human beings that also generate reactions from the mind. Consciousness is the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself while sub-consciousness is the mental activity not directly perceived by the consciousness from which memories, feelings, or thoughts can influence behavior without the realization of it (Brown 1985). The physical manifestations of such activities of the mind include doodling and scribbling, among others. These activities the researcher believes can further be enhanced visually to create aesthetics. Aesthetics in art is that which appeals to our sense of appreciation through “aesthetic
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judgments”. Aesthetic judgments may be linked to emotions or, that which revolves around the way we physically react to objects that we desire (Zangwil, 2003). Mothersill (2004) opines that “aesthetic judgments might be seen to be based on the senses, emotions, intellectual opinions, will, desires, culture, preferences, values, subconscious behavior, conscious decision, training, instinct, sociological institutions, or some complex combination of these”. They may also be culturally conditioned. For example, African art, before the influence of the Western tradition, existed in many forms and styles, and with fairly little influence from outside Africa. Most of it followed traditional forms and the aesthetic norms that were handed down orally from one generation to another. 1.1 Background of the Study The researcher reviewed some artworks especially paintings, which their creators claimed to have been influenced directly or indirectly by doodles and discovered that these paintings do not reflect much of visual characteristics of doodles. An example is a New Zealand kinetic sculptor, Leonard Charles Huia Lye‟s (1901-1980) artworks who had some of his doodles developed into paintings, sculptures and other works of art. One example of his works is a painting, Untitled – Life under the Sea (see Fig. 1). Likewise the paintings of Edwin Parker Twombly Jr. (1928 – 2011), an American painter of the “Abstract Expressionist” era in the late 20th-century and early 21st-century art, whose works barely have reflections of doodles. His painting Untitled (presented in Fig. 2) is an example. That notwithstanding, Twombly‟s creative efforts formed a reasonable point of departure for this research.
Doodles are oftentimes referred to as meaningless or undecipherable markings written or drawn on something. (Andraide, 2009). They could also be markings made aimlessly or absentmindedly. Doodling is created when a pen or writing material wanders
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aimlessly on a piece of paper; the doodler unconsciously allows imagination from the subconscious to take over, creating swirls and lines. Fig. 1. Artist: Leonard Charles Huai Lye Title: Untitled – Life under the sea Year: nd Size: 46 x 51cm Medium: Oil on canvas. Source: http://www.art-newzealand.com
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Fig. 2.
Artist: Edwin Parker Twombly Jr.
Title: Untitled
Year: 1954
Size: nd
Medium: Ink on paper.
Source: http://www.cytwombly.info/twombly_gallery.htm
Doodling is a mode of expression even when made inconceivably, and though seemingly
meaningless, the researcher sees it is an effort perhaps to relay a feeling or emotion.
Doodling is also a way of communicating with images rather than the written or spoken
word. When an artist doodles and he or she eventually perceives it as a drawing, the
question of meaninglessness becomes an issue. In that regard, for him, it may be taken as
his voice or a statement being declared conceptually from the realm of sub-consciousness.
Mafe (2009) sees the artist’s voice as “the dynamic tension that is created between
the compelling demands of representation and [affect]” (sic). He says that it exists in a form
of two unrelated forms of articulate and inarticulate forces. The articulate is the one that is
spoken loud enough to be heard, which is also generated from the consciousness realm of
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the mind. The other which he says is inarticulate is not, it remains within the subconscious state. That which when efforts are unconsciously made to declare often turns out unacceptable hence it is seen as meaningless. The researcher believes the meaninglessness in doodles could however be made meaningful through creative efforts in painting. He also sees these undecipherable markings as visually transformable to create aesthetics. 1.2 Statement of the Problem: Doodling is an exercise which emanates from the realm of sub consciousness. Sub consciousness is the connecting link between the unconscious and the conscious. This link manifests in the form of fantasy, dreams and doodling (Freud in Brown 2009). People‟s doodles usually end up in the “dust bin”, because they are perceived as “aimless and meaningless”. Given this perception of the doodle as being worthless, it has rarely been employed as an aesthetic mode ofv expression. This research therefore explores its aesthetic possibilities. 1.3 Aim of the study: The aim of this study is to explore and generate a style of visual expression in painting by re-creating the doodles made by a select number of people, into visual artistic forms. 1.4 Objectives of the Study: The objectives of this study are to: i. identify images in doodles, ii explore line and texture as design elements inherent in doodles,
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iii. explore the various techniques that could be employed to create visual space for doodles in the paintings, iv. create paintings adopting doodle images in their original form, v. create painting compositions combining different doodle images, vi. create paintings, drawing inspiration from doodles. 1.5 Research Questions:
i. Can there be recognizable images in doodles?
ii. In what way will line and texture in doodle be explored to create painting?
iii. What are the various techniques that could be explored to create visual space for doodles that will be adapted in creating paintings?
iv. How can doodle images be adopted to create a painting while its original form is retained?
v. Can a painting composition be created using multiple images of doodles?
vi. Can paintings be inspired by doodles?
1.6 Justification of the Study: From age to age, the concepts of change, time and taste have been the phenomena that characterize the artistic contextual order experienced in the visual art world. As could be discovered, prominent art forms were borne out of an insatiable quest for change by the artists who created them. This has also led to creative discoveries especially in style and materials as seen in artistic expressions. At a point in history, the old masters believed the Renaissance era marked the peak of global artistic culture, but it was soon discovered that it would be the beginning of a creative revolution which has become a regular occurrence.
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Studies of some painters whose works were influenced by doodling are discovered to have totally diffused the conceptual forms in their inventive state. Moreover, a few paintings of Edwin Parker Twombly Jr. like, “Untitled” (Fig 3), for instance, is still indicative of doodle characteristics. This research would therefore recreate a new visual concept using doodle as a source of inspiration, without losing the visual aesthetic elements. Furthermore the need to visually re-present and interpret doodles; creating a new style of expression in painting through exploring various elements of design like line and colour would be realized. 1.7 Significance of the Study: This study is significant because it will advance a visual means of transforming doodles into a creative visual expression in painting; change the end-use of doodles from objects fit for our waste-bins to aesthetic objects in keeping with the contemporary yearning for a visual exploration; establish possibilities of a shift of artistic thematic concentration from conscious to subconscious attributes. It will also add to existing references for future research explorations in studio practice in particular and visual arts in general.
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Fig. 3. Artist: Edwin Parker Twombly Jr. Title: Salon I Year: 1952 Size: nd Medium: Ink on paper. Source: http://www.cytwombly.info/twombly_gallery.htm 1.8 Scope of the Study: This research will focus only on doodles collected from Demonstration Secondary School, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo between February and March, 2012. 1.9 Conceptual Framework:
Andre Breton‟s (1896-1966), first Surrealism manifesto of 1929 (Harrison and Wood 2003), formed the conceptual framework upon which this research is established. In the manifesto, Surrealism is seen as an artistic movement and philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the crucial and imaginative powers of the
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subconscious. Surrealism is equally defined as Psychic automatism in its pure state by which one proposes to express verbally by means of written word, or any other manner, the actual functioning of thought, dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern. Pomerantz (2008) observes that Sigmund Freud‟s (1856-1939) philosophies influenced Breton in writing the Surrealism manifesto. According to Freud‟s psychoanalysis theory, the impulse (often hidden in memory), once expelled from the unconscious, needs some sort of agent which in most cases is a type of medium, and this he refers to as words (written or spoken). Brown (2009) paraphrases Freud‟s thinking on this issue thus,
the unconscious becomes conscious by getting connected with words, the verbal images which correspond to it; these verbal images are memory-residues of external perceptions; the work of analysis supplies verbal images of this kind which act as connecting links between the unconscious and the conscious. These links include fantasy, dreams and doodling.
While Salvador Dali (1904-1989) and other Surrealists like Andre Masson (1896-1987), Joan Miro (1893-1983), Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), Man Ray (1890-1976), Rene Magritte (1898-1967), Max Ernst (1891-1976), Yves Tanguy (1900-1955), Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) and Paul Klee (1879-1940) employed imagery which is based on fantasy and the world of dreams, this work will explore that of doodling. The researcher believes that when a doodle is visually transformed and remade meaningfully, the artist does not only exhibit his inborn capacity to bring the subconscious state to consciousness but also in the words of Langer (1957) in Dryden (2004), the artist‟s creation, as an art object “objectifies the subjective realm”. This according to him implies that art is indispensable as both a product and an instrument of human insight because it makes possible the formulation of the verbally indescribable patterns of subjective experience,
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“that elusive aspect of reality that is commonly taken to be amorphous and chaotic” (Dryden 2004).
This research shares in the philosophy of Surrealism which was set to explore the imaginative powers of the unconscious which manifestations include dream and fantasy through a visual exercise like painting. Based on Langer‟s view as stated above, the researcher sees the subconscious as a vault within man‟s mind which contains resources that are not being utilized and could be a point of inspiration for artists to create artworks as objects of aesthetics. McLeod (2013) asserts, “the subconscious mind stores all of your previous life experiences, your beliefs, your memories, your skills, all situations you’ve been through and all images you’ve ever seen”. If there exists any possible space that stores objects of inspiration for visual exploration, the researcher submits, it is no other than within the subconscious state of the mind.
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